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Table: General Difficulty Levels

Difficulty

DC

Trivial

5

Easy

10

Moderate

15

Challenging

20

Hard

25

Expert

30

Master

35

Legendary

40

Mythic

45

Epic

50

Proficiency

Your proficiency level in each skill represents your general training as part of your class, whereas your ranks represent your extra effort, focus, and hard work in improving your skill. You can be very well trained in a skill, but have not mastered on how to use it beyond the basics.

Your proficiency level allows you to add a bonus related to your character level to that skill. In additional, certain uses of a skill can only be attempted when you reach a certain level of proficiency.

Novice: You have no interest in developing this skill beyond general training.

Skilled: You consider this skill as part of your core abilities. You gain a proficiency bonus equal to half of your character level (minimum 1).

Expert: You have specialized in this skill, and are more apt with it than the average person. You gain a proficiency bonus equal to your character level.

Master: You have mastered every use of this skill known to the common person. No one else can teach you anything new about this skill. You gain a proficiency bonus equal to 1.5 times your character level. You must be at least 7th character level to have master proficiency in a skill.

Legendary: You have developed this skill beyond the limits of common reasoning, capable accomplishing feats with it found only in myth and legend. You gain a proficiency bonus equal to twice your character level. You must be at least 13th character level to have legendary proficiency in a skill.

Trained skills can only be used if you have invested at least 1 rank in it.

Certain skills are composed of different specializations: Artistry, Craft, Knowledge, Lore, Perform, and Profession. Proficiency increases are applied separately to each individual specialization.

Class Skills

Each class has a number of favored skills, called class skills. It is easier for your character to become more proficient in these skills, as they represent part of your professional training and constant practice.

Unranked class skill: You are able to use trained class skills even if you do not have any ranks in them. In addition, you start with skilled proficiency in this skill even without any ranks allocated to it.

Ranked class skill: When you have at least one rank in a class skill, you start with expert proficiency in this skill.

Skills can later become class skills through leveling into new classes, gaining certain feats, or other means. Once they do, they increase in proficiency level by one step, but only if they were previously not a class skill.

For skills composed of different specializations, the class skill proficiency increase applies to all of the specializations, unless only the specialization is in the class skills list.

How It Works

Your 1st-level wizard has 18 Int and 11 Cha, with Knowledge (arcana) as a class skill, but not Diplomacy. You want to be a very knowledgeable mage, but also one with good social skills. Knowledge (arcana) is a class skill for wizards and Diplomacy is not, so your proficiency in Knowledge (arcana) starts at skill while Diplomacy is at novice. Without allocating any ranks to any skills yet, your wizard is able to make Knowledge (arcana) checks with a +5 modifier, and Diplomacy checks with a +0 modifier.

At 1st level, you allocate 1 rank to both skills. You also assign your skill increase to Diplomacy, raising its proficiency to skilled. Your skilled Knowledge (arcana) is now at +6, and your skilled Diplomacy is at +2.

At 7th level, you now have 7 ranks in both Knowledge (arcana) and Diplomacy. You also increased your proficiency in Diplomacy to master. Your skilled Knowledge (arcana) is now at +14, and your master Diplomacy is at +17.